Do you spend your life trying to please everybody? Paul had to speak harshly to the Christians in Galatia because they were in serious danger. He did not apologize for his straight-forward words, knowing that he could serve Christ faithfully if he allowed the Galatian Christians to remain on the wrong track. Whose approval are you seeking-others' or God's? Pray for the courage to seek God's approval above anyone else's.
For Paul, it was one or the other. He could not direct his ministry towards pleasing men and at the same time direct it to pleasing Jesus Christ. And if his concern is not first to please Jesus Christ, then he is not a servant of Christ.
Servant perhaps is not the best translation here; it may be better translated slave. “It is unfortunate that . . . our English translations should so consistently fail to give this word its true meaning, thereby encouraging the false conception of Christian ‘service’ (as something essentially voluntary and part-time) so characteristic of modern religious idealism. The ‘bond-servant of Christ’ is not free to offer or withhold his ‘service’; his life is not his own, but belongs entirely to his Lord.”
For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ (Galatians 1:10).
For Paul, it was one or the other. He could not direct his ministry towards pleasing men and at the same time direct it to pleasing Jesus Christ. And if his concern is not first to please Jesus Christ, then he is not a servant of Christ.
Servant perhaps is not the best translation here; it may be better translated slave. “It is unfortunate that . . . our English translations should so consistently fail to give this word its true meaning, thereby encouraging the false conception of Christian ‘service’ (as something essentially voluntary and part-time) so characteristic of modern religious idealism. The ‘bond-servant of Christ’ is not free to offer or withhold his ‘service’; his life is not his own, but belongs entirely to his Lord.”